‘The Yet Unknowing World’: The Many Worlds Unveiled by Hiroko Tanaka in Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows

Abstract

This paper explores how Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows (2009) unravels the interwoven legacies of colonialism, environmental degradation, and transnational trauma through the life of its protagonist, Hiroko Tanaka. By tracing the intersections of war ecology, nuclear colonialism, and postcolonial violence, this study argues that environmental destruction constitutes a form of enduring imperial aggression. Shamsie’s narrative, spanning Japan, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the United States, reveals how landscapes of war and displacement shape collective memory and ecological consciousness. The novel situates personal and planetary suffering within a shared moral framework, ultimately calling for a cosmopolitan ethics that unites environmental, social, and postcolonial justice.